Amidst the valleys, situated in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by hills and forests on all sides, a small human settlement could be found. It had wooden walls running along its perimeter, which could be considered quite extravagant for a village that was mostly dependent on farming.

The size of the village indicated that it was home to not more than 500 or so people, and most of its land inside the wooden walls consisted of small farmlands owned by the various families living within. How do these humans fare, living in such proximity to monsters, is something only the inhabitants know themselves.

It was fast approaching night and the torches all over the village had already been lit. The hustling of the villagers within, drowned with passing time as they made way into their houses, to rest after yet another hard day's work. A drowsy middle-aged man did not have such luxury, as he reluctantly guarded the large wooden village gate at the entrance. His rapid stepping of the foot gave away his anxiety as if he wanted to shut the damn thing and be on his way to a good night's sleep. It was not long before he finally saw a small figure ahead in the open fields, sprinting towards the entrance.

"You brat, it's night already. Did you plan to come the next morning or something?" rebuked the guard, waiting for the figure to step inside the wooden walls.

"What night time, the sky's still not dark," the boy said in his defense.

"Didn't your mother ask you to come back before the torches are lit? Clearly, you are late again! I wonder if you will get a beating, hahaha," the guard laughed as if wanting to vent some of his frustrations.

"It's fine, this time she will be considerate."

Now that he was in the light, the guard could glance at the approaching figure of the boy below the gateway. Black hair and black pupils, along with a slightly tan muscular physique. His height was short indicating his tender age, but in no way did the villagers considered him to be 'tender'. Only at this point did the guard's eyes fell upon the corpses of Horned Rabbits on the boy, and his pupils widened in shock and disbelief.

"You actually managed to catch four!" he exclaimed, seemingly stupefied at the scene.

His shock was not surprising. Horned Rabbits are monsters famed for their agility. They are not dangerous enough to threaten human life in a village directly, but they can be a nightmare for any farmer considering their voracious appetite. A horde of them can devour entire croplands.

They have sharp senses just like any other monster, and it is very difficult to catch them once they start fleeing. The majority of villages post requests for 'experts' to take care of such creatures, but those requests generally get scarce attention because of how annoying these pests can be. Therefore catching even one could be considered a hunter's pride. And then there's this kid, who caught four within an afternoon.

The boy ignored the comical expression on the guards' face as he hurried into the village, with a slightly anxious face. He had to reach his house before the sky becomes completely dark, otherwise...

"Oi!' the guard abruptly shouted.

"What?"

"cough! cough! Ahem!.." the guard let out some obvious fake coughing as if getting ready to say something really serious and...

"Welcome back home...Legas," he immediately turned around with a flushed face, proceeding to close the gate.

A dry chuckle escaped the boy's mouth, but he still whispered in a low voice,

"I'm back," before dashing further, disappearing into the village pathways.

Legas reached all the way back, to the far end of the village, where an old wooden house was situated slightly far from the other thatched huts. A tanning rack could be seen right beside the entry door, and all sorts of monster pelts and hides were stacked near it. A nose wrenching smell of blood and monster viscera permeated the entire area.

"Mom, I have some game here!" Legas unfastened his belt, placing the monster bodies beside a chopping block before he shouted.

Murmuring noises came from within the house, along with the clanking sound of utensils. Two people came out a moment later, one figure even smaller than Legas directly rushed out jumping onto his back.

"Brother! What did you bring?... Yay! its Horned Rabbits! Mom look! Brother brought four rabbits! This one is sooo fat!" the small figure joyfully exclaimed.

"Lora, get off my back," Legas said in a tone of mild irritation as he put down his cute little sister. She had similar black hair up to her shoulders and large black pupils. A very cute and immatures voice could be heard from her mouth, and her stature indicated that she was not more than 3 years old.

The other person was a female in her mid-thirties. She had a similar tan to her body and her arms, even though looked alluring, could not be counted as that of a feeble maiden. She looked like someone who could easily handle herself in a fight. An expression of fury donned her visage initially when she stepped out, which had then later changed to shock, before she finally sighed deeply, hitting Legas on his head.

"Ouch!"

"I'm happy that you have become skilled enough to bring back such a good harvest, but do you know how anxious I get when you don't return in time. I constantly keep worrying that you might have ventured too far into the forest and...."

"I know, Mom," Legas interrupted. "Even I don't want to die so early. Definitely not by being torn into pieces by Green Wolves.

"Hence I take proper precautions, not going far enough in the woods, even taking into consideration that some of the wolves and other monsters may have come out of their territories in search of food. I never cross the safety line that you have set up for me."

Legas' mother glanced at him with all sorts of emotion flickering on her face. This son of hers was just too smart and capable. It was only three years back when she had started teaching him the basics of hunting, and now he could already treat the forest as if it was his backyard.

"I wished your father was half as clever as you," she lightly sighed with a wistful expression. Squatting down onto the ground, she took out a large knife from within a bowl and proceeded to skin the rabbit corpse.

'He wouldn't have been an adventurer if he was clever enough.'

Legas silently clutched another knife from the bowl before similarly dismembering the fluffy monster. Lora was poking the body of the fat rabbit with drool escaping her mouth and her eyes seemed as if stars were shining in it, completely oblivious to the gloomy atmosphere around.

'Is she thinking of eating it raw?'

"Oh, I remembered," Legas' mother suddenly spoke. "Tonight Uncle Granos has called for another storytelling session. Go along with some fresh meat. It would make a good match to have rabbit stew while listening to stories."

"What, Why? I don't wanna go," the boy refused.

"Yiya!, Uncle Granor's stories! Rabbit stew! Also, also, I can play with sister Lena!" another joyful shout escaped from the little girl. The siblings had quite the opposite reaction.

"Don't argue and just go."

"No!"

"Are you sure you don't want to see Lena?",Legas' mother suddenly whispered with a teasing smile.

The knife almost slipped out of Legas' hands when he heard such, "Wh-Why would I want to see her!" Such a reaction was quite the contrast to his predator like aura in the woods, which again cleared the fact that he was still a child at heart.

"Oh, Is that so?... Lora, I will bring you there. If Lena ever asks, you have to tell her that your brother didn't want to see her, okay~~"

"Okay!" Lora shouted gleefully.

"You are not helping!"

Legas mumbled some incoherent gibberish before finally agreeing to tag along. 'It's because I need to take Lora there. She will be sad if I don't go. Hmm Hmm' Nodding his head like an old man convincing himself, the hunter boy resumed his work of skinning the rabbits.